Friday, May 18, 2018

"Thundercats" Second Reincarnation

The ThunderCats are coming back. Cartoon Network has greenlighted ThunderCats Roar, an all-new series from Warner Bros Animation that’s set to premiere next year. Production is underway.

The logline: Staying true to the premise of the original series: Lion-O and the ThunderCats — Tygra, Panthro, Cheetara, Wilykat and Wilykit — barely escape the sudden destruction of their home world, Thundera, only to crash land on the mysterious and exotic planet of Third Earth....

The first incarnation of ThunderCats was, of course, the Japanese series in the last half of the 1980s. The second incarnation was the 2011 reboot, which was somewhat like its forebear but only somewhat.

The '11 version, which debuted with fanfare, received some good review and sizable things were expected of it. General scuttlebut was that the opus would run for 52 episodes.

But the 52 half-hours never came to pass. ThunderCats ('11) ran for only a season, and did only "okay" in the ratings. (Semi)-official word of its demise came a year-and-a-half after the show's October, 2011 launch.

So how many episodes will be created for the third version of ThunderCats? Warners and Cartoon Network are no doubt hoping for a bunch. But whether it's 13 or 24 or 52 will depend on how it performs out of the gate and down the stretch.